Cave de Tain Crozes-Hermitage, France 2016 (£12.79, Waitrose) There’s a tendency to divide wine producers into opposing camps. There’s the big boys with their vast factory-like facilities and marketing budgets. Then there’s the small producers, the self-styled ‘artisans’, that come closest to the pastoral imagery of what a wine producer ought to be. Sitting uneasily between the two is a third group, the co-operatives: groups of growers who pool their resources rather than try to go it alone or sell their grapes to one of the big guys. At times, co-ops have had a bad rap, making industrial wines without the slick branding of the big firms. But when they’re well run, like the northern Rhône’s Cave de Tain, with its range of spicy, authentic syrah reds, they offer a winning combination of good value and utopian communitarianism.

Produttori dei Barbaresco, Italy 2014 (£29.95, Jeroboams; Noble Green)In Europe, co-operatives can have an enormous influence on their local area, acting as a kind of de-facto local vinous government that can shape the way the local wines are made and perceived. That can be useful if they’re as competent as the Cave de Tain, above, whose members have around 70% of the local vineyards in Crozes-Hermitage and Hermitage, and who do much to promote the interests of both names worldwide. The same is true of one of Italy’s finest co-ops, the Produttori dei Barbaresco. The Produttori’s 60-odd members own many of the best vineyards in Barbaresco, neighbour of Barolo in Piedmont, and year in year out they make some of the zone’s very best nebbiolo reds, with the 2014 Barbaresco typically bright, perfumed and pure.

Adega de Monção Vinho Verde, Portugal 2017 (£9.79, Bottle Apostle) There are plenty of other co-ops worth looking out for either with their name proudly displayed on the front label or secreted away on the back. The Producteurs Plaimont, from Armagnac country in southwest France make some delightful sweet wines, such as the sorbet-fresh, honeyed, tropical-tangy Plaimont Maestra Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh 2015 (£10.20, 50cl, Tanners). In northern Spain, Bodegas Borsao’s 375 members have some fine old garnacha vines that make some of the best-value reds in the world, such as the warming juicy abundance of Borsao Garnacha 2017 (£6.19, Rannoch Scott). And in northern Portugal, the hundreds of growers supplying grapes to Adega de Monção are responsible for classic Vinho Verde in this wonderfully zippy, breezy, zesty dry white.

This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information.

This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information.